{"id":84994,"date":"2026-06-26T08:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=84994"},"modified":"2026-06-26T09:36:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:36:36","slug":"i-torture-myself-over-every-last-detail-stardew-valley-creator-concernedape-says-hes-still-here-still-grinding-on-haunted-chocolatier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=84994","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I Torture Myself Over Every Last Detail&#8217; \u2014 Stardew Valley Creator ConcernedApe Says He&#8217;s &#8216;Still Here, Still Grinding&#8217; on Haunted Chocolatier"},"content":{"rendered":"<section data-transform=\"mobile-ad-break\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/stardew-valley\">Stardew Valley<\/a> creator ConcernedApe has reassured fans that he\u2019s still working on his next game, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/games\/haunted-chocolatier\">Haunted Chocolatier<\/a>, and explained why it\u2019s taking so long.<\/p>\n<p>ConcernedApe, real name Eric Barone, announced Haunted Chocolatier back in 2021, but amid ongoing work on his phenomenally successful Stardew Valley, progress on the follow-up has been slow going.<\/p>\n<p>In a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hauntedchocolatier.net\/2026\/06\/25\/still-here-still-grinding\/\">blog post<\/a> titled \u201cStill here, still grinding\u2026,\u201d ConcernedApe insisted he was still working on the game, which he sounds somewhat embarrassed to have to keep on saying. \u201cFeels kinda dumb posting this same thing over and over, but that\u2019s the reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"ignvideo\" data-slug=\"concernedapes-haunted-chocolatier-early-gameplay-trailer\" data-loop=\"\">\n<p>\u201cI know it\u2019s taking a long time,\u201d he continued, before explaining the hold up. ConcernedApe is fussing over every last detail, it seems, in a bid to make Haunted Chocolatier as close to perfect as humanly possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am being very thoughtful about every aspect of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cThe things in the game which the player will be interacting with or using very often need to be \u2018perfect.\u2019 They need to be seamless, clear, intuitive, satisfying, aesthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He used the example of iterating on the recipe book for making chocolates, which sounds like a significant challenge. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, it\u2019s not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe has reassured fans that he\u2019s still working on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, and explained why it\u2019s taking so long. ConcernedApe, real name Eric Barone, announced Haunted Chocolatier back in 2021, but amid ongoing work on his phenomenally successful Stardew Valley, progress on the follow-up has been slow going. In a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":84996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84994"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84998,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84994\/revisions\/84998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}